San Jose, CA (population: 977,893) has five art and design schools within its city limits. San Jose State University, the highest ranked school in the city with an art and design program, has a total student population of 31,280. It is the 1434th highest ranked school in the USA and the 121st highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles). To learn more about art and design programs in San Jose, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of art and design professors at San Jose State University such as Andrea English, Pat Enright, Dan Hua, Lorri Kershner, Brian Kimura, and Shunichi Kimura.
Art and Design students from San Jose schools who go on to become designers, ad designers, advertising designers, commercial designers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 8,900 people working as fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $50,630. Also, Electrical and electronics drafters make on average $54,800 per year and there are about 30,590 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area alone, there are 600 employed electrical and electronics drafters earning an average salary of $74,350. Fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators in this area earn $80,560/yr and there are 110 employed.
San Jose lies in Santa Clara county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area has 888,960 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $32/hr average worker wage, and a $66,780 average annual salary. Thus, about 0 out of every 1000 jobs in San Jose are held by fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators, and 1/1000 are held by electrical and electronics drafters.
Of the 5 art and design schools in San Jose, only 3 have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Western Career College-San Jose comes out as the most expensive ($25,443/yr) for art and design students, with Evergreen Valley College as the lowest, reported at only $9,070/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from San Jose |
| Santa Clara | CA | 112,889 | 4 | 29.9373 | 188 | 8.2 miles |
| Milpitas | CA | 69,900 | 1 | 18.2292 | 19 | 9.3 miles |
| Sunnyvale | CA | 135,564 | 4 | 17.5213 | 21 | 11.7 miles |
| Fremont | CA | 207,431 | 5 | 26.457 | 262 | 17.9 miles |
| Union City | CA | 76,462 | 1 | 13.7752 | 0 | 22.8 miles |
| Santa Cruz | CA | 57,690 | 2 | 37.6705 | 80 | 25.1 miles |
| Hayward | CA | 145,517 | 6 | 17.5402 | 239 | 26.6 miles |
| Dublin | CA | 46,208 | 3 | 13.8145 | 117 | 29.2 miles |
| Castro Valley | CA | 65,952 | 0 | - | 0 | 30.6 miles |
| San Mateo | CA | 93,990 | 1 | 15.1982 | 101 | 31.0 miles |
| San Leandro | CA | 78,904 | 1 | 29.9223 | 11 | 32.8 miles |
| Oakland | CA | 412,612 | 12 | 26.3295 | 321 | 38.3 miles |
| Alameda | CA | 71,628 | 3 | 11.6549 | 62 | 39.5 miles |
| South San Francisco | CA | 64,345 | 0 | - | 0 | 40.0 miles |
| Walnut Creek | CA | 64,055 | 0 | - | 0 | 42.8 miles |
| Berkeley | CA | 102,237 | 13 | 2.98519 | 59 | 45.7 miles |
| San Francisco | CA | 817,411 | 21 | 17.5697 | 455 | 46.3 miles |
| Concord | CA | 122,338 | 7 | 21.1076 | 136 | 47.1 miles |
| Antioch | CA | 102,439 | 2 | 25.0238 | 14 | 47.8 miles |
| Pittsburg | CA | 67,613 | 2 | 20.7913 | 157 | 49.9 miles |
| Salida | CA | - | 2 | 26.0837 | 19 | 50.5 miles |
| Ceres | CA | 43,443 | 0 | - | 0 | 53.1 miles |
| Modesto | CA | 203,882 | 4 | 24.9737 | 137 | 53.4 miles |
| Stockton | CA | 291,422 | 7 | 28.794 | 278 | 55.0 miles |
| Vallejo | CA | 114,029 | 1 | 31.5233 | 11 | 60.4 miles |
| Fairfield | CA | 104,184 | 9 | 23.8893 | 386 | 66.5 miles |
| Napa | CA | 75,759 | 1 | 15.1485 | 56 | 73.4 miles |
| Merced | CA | 78,579 | 3 | 29.789 | 150 | 75.4 miles |
| Laguna | CA | 60,976 | 0 | - | 0 | 81.0 miles |
| West Sacramento | CA | 50,542 | 1 | 29.8049 | 4 | 88.7 miles |